"I firmly believe that I should be the champion." Even though the 2021 NBA Draft has passed, Jaylen Green has made such statements again and again, and it can be seen that he is grumpy about being selected with the 2nd pick.
Obviously, he just wanted to be the first, and he had long since decided that he should be the first place — to be exact, from the age of 15.
By the time he was 15, there was little place in the basketball world where Jaylen Green could be seen and unrecognized. Because of his ability to bounce like Zach Lavin and because he was seen as Kobe Bryant's successor, Jaylen Green's tournament highlights at the age of 15 had become a blockbuster product for video sites. Since junior high school, he has been listed by ESPN as the nation's best player among the class of 2020. The filmmakers have even been following him and his family for several years.
At the age of 17, Green showed great enthusiasm for the sport of basketball, and he devoted a lot of time to basketball, which impressed his coach. At 4:30 a.m., Green began his day with a 55-mile drive from Napa to Dublin, California, training with Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry at 6 a.m., three times a week. After training, Green will immediately drive back to his school in Napa. After school, rush to participate in the Basketball Course of The Prolifik Preparatory School for 2 hours.
"Jaylen began his mission the day he walked onto our campus," said Philip Doherty, deputy director of the Prolific Preparatory School. "He wanted to be the best one, to be the No.1 athlete in this country. Jaylen constantly pushed himself to do more because he knew he had a higher ceiling than most. ”
Born in Merced, California, in 2002, Green's family exemplifies the characteristics of the United States as a nation of immigrants. His mother was a filipino white Mexican and his father was African-American. Green's mother, Brie Pulgarnan, said that when he was 4 years old, his father played with Green on the road in front of his home, giving him exposure to basketball.
"He would run in and say, 'I beat Daddy.'" Actually Dad beat him, but he was going to say he won. He likes to play basketball in the front yard. Pulganan said. It wasn't really a stadium, it was just a concrete private driveway with cracks. The ball often landed on the crack and bounced up and flew in other directions. On that dilapidated field, Green played day and night. By the time he started eighth grade, he was already playing pretty well.
It seems that every teenager who loves basketball must have a pair of Jordan shoes in his life. At the age of 9, the Green family moved to Fresno. Green's stepfather, Marcus Green, made a bet with him that if Green could dunk before eighth grade, his stepfather would have to buy him a pair of Jordan shoes. For this reward, Green practiced desperately, and he focused on how to dunk.
One morning at 7 a.m., Green got out of bed and thought: It's today. He put on his red board shoes and completed a one-handed dunk. The stepfather did not break his word and resolutely bought him a pair of air Jordan that was too classic to be classic.
This seems to have become the starting point for his rise. At that time, Green could only say that he was not bad, but you said that he would be selected as a champion or a leader in the future? Absolutely not. At that time, people only saw him as a tall child who did not belong to this place.
Marcus remembers the look in his eyes when he took Green, who was in seventh and eighth grade, to sign up for various high-level boot camps, where people told him he should restrain himself because they felt it was impossible for Green to stick with it. Green looked frustrated at the players who were ahead of him, but he kept trying. Green didn't even know how well he performed afterwards, and the coaches took his progress into account.
"Just after that bootcamp," Green recalled, "the rankings were released and I was ranked first." That's shocking. ”
At the time, Green's parents drove him two and a half hours every Friday night to train at Brandon Payne's Acelerate basketball club. His parents then drove back for another two and a half hours. The back-and-forth tosses exhausted the two, but they would do it on Saturday night, because by this time the other kids Green knew had gone out to party.
Teenage Green didn't slack off in order to be the best player. It's hard to believe that a middle school student can turn down a weekend and continue with boring training.
Turning the pages of the book, the path of American basketball genius seems to be somewhat similar. Jaylen Green is talented, hard-working, and competitive, becoming a five-star high school student in the United States and was named to the 2020 McDonald's All-America Team. He represented the United States in the 2019 U19 World Cup, the 2018 U17 World Cup and the 2017 U16 World Championships, helping the team win gold medals. At the 2018 U17 World Cup in Argentina, Green was named the Most Valuable Player. At this point, he walked the path that the basketball geniuses in the United States have followed for more than a decade, and then he chose a completely different path: not going to college, directly joining the NBA's affiliated G League (NBA Development League).
With Green's achievements in California high school basketball, with his position as the first high school student in the United States in the class of 2020, he can easily gain the favor of many elite schools. Auburn University, Florida State University, The University of Oregon, the University of Memphis and other american basketball schools have all extended invitations to him.
Green has always been sought after by Memphis and fans, and in the first away game Green played in Memphis in 2019, thousands of people chanted "We want Jaylen", and he nodded his head in approval and acknowledgment. Even Grizzlies guard Jay Morant joined the solicitations, doing everything in his power to persuade Green to come to his city.
Then the G League called.
When Green signed as the first player to move directly from high school to the development league's new development program, Green's decision changed a lot of things, the trajectory of the G League and its mission, and even to some extent the landscape of college basketball. The new program offers elite players an opportunity to earn money in advance, and a new era in the sport has officially begun.
"I don't have a problem with college basketball," Green said, "and if I go to college, I have a lot of friends." But I felt that going directly to the G League was a better option for me, and I just wanted to be different. ”
Green abandoned the traditional path of entering the NBA and gave up college life. Green may feel that with his talent, he can stand wherever he wants, and he will bloom to the fullest.
Bobby Brown, who entered the league in 2007, is an uncompromising veteran who never expected to be teammates with Green, who is 18 years younger than himself. Green was only 14 years old when he played for the Rockets, but Green's modesty, patience, and desire to learn all left a good first impression on Brown.
Brown was 17 years old when he first met Green. Brown played field ball with other professional players at UCLA in the summer of 2017, and a toddler was brought into UCLA's gymnasium to compete in the fabled summer ball game, but only a handful of people present knew who he was.
Former UCLA star Rick Hans helps organise the game every summer, saying: "I didn't know this guy at all before, and individuals and their moms always texted me with introductions and asked me to take them out to play. On the recommendation of a mutual friend, Hans invited Green to drive from home, but he could not give any assurances as to the extent to which Green would be in contact with NBA players, including Kevin Durant.
"I remember Brandon Jennings was there that day. He knew who Green was. "But Brandon's performance is like, 'You may be the number one player in the country, but you have to prove it here.'" That's not like garbage. It's more like 'walking and seeing'. ”
Green was desperate to make the show, but he had to wait patiently for his chance. There's an unwritten rule in the arena that young players have to wait until the older players are done before they can play.
Green waited on the sidelines for hours. Finally, he waited for the opportunity to play alongside Brown and other professional players. As one of the pros was getting ready to pack up and go home, Hans looked at Green, pointed him at him, and asked him to join the game and defend Durant.
"At the beginning you could tell he had a feeling of 'wow, I'm playing with KD,'" Brown said, "and I'm pretty sure Durant got a couple of points on him in the beginning." But then Green rushed up in a quick attack. ”
Green's dunk didn't know which tape it was recorded on, and Brown would never forget it anyway. "I'm pretty sure it was just a normal dunk for him, but everyone in the arena just looked at each other like that, and the expression was like saying, 'Oh my God!'" ’”
After that day, there was a surge in the number of people who believed he did have real materials. That arena is also a favorite of Los Angeles-area stars like Byron Davis, Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook and Magic Johnson.
In the field of basketball, Green is thirsty for knowledge, he is good at learning from others, and he will practice with perseverance. In three years of AAU games, his three-point shooting percentage was 18.9%, 27.9% and 29.6%. After a season of grinding in the G League, he averaged 5.7 shots on three-point courts and shot 36.5 percent from the field. Green's talent for running and jumping may be innate, but shooting ability is never innate. Without hard training, Green's shooting level would not have improved by such a leap.
Coach Roznovsky recalls Green's memories of high school, and we can see how much effort Green has put into getting to the next level. When he first came to high school, Green was not a very good shooter. In his freshman year of high school, Green fell in love with the shooting machine in the stadium. The coaches let him train the dynamic movements of the game - receiving the side cover pass shot and shooting after the ball cover, which made it easier for him to adapt to the change in playing style.
Roznovsky said: "It is different to have a child take different pass shots and just practice 100 shots with a shooting machine. The shot must be done in our training style so that he can complete the moving shot. ”
From early morning until late at night, Green invested more time in the gym with the staff.
By his sophomore season, Green's shooting had improved significantly. He grew all summer and grew more muscle. In 2017-18, he shot 35 percent from three-point range, averaging 27.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game. The team ended the tournament with a record of 25 wins and 7 losses, and successfully won the second division championship as the top seed. Green was also named the 2020 National Best Guard.
In the third year of high school, Green, who was in a period of rapid rise, did not relax. He continued to develop his offensive abilities, once again improving his points from 27.9 to 30.1 and averaging 3.6 assists per game. San Joaquin Memorial High School successfully defended its title, as Green had promised at the beginning. This hard work and studiousness inevitably reminds people of Kobe, and on the road to becoming the "best one", Green has always regarded Kobe as an example.
By 2021, the 19-year-old had torn apart the G-League defense as a member of the Ignition Team, averaging 17.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game with 46.1 percent shooting. Why, however, has he not become a household name like Cunningham, Evan Mobley and Jaylen Sargers?
First, the NCAA's exposure and influence is completely unmatched by the G League, but more importantly, the G League can only be held in the isolated campus of Orlando in the context of the new crown epidemic. Due to the global pandemic, no one has been able to see Green play regularly since the rest of last spring's high school season and other game schedules were canceled. He waited almost a year for the first official match.
Green, who has a strong ability to learn and is determined to move towards his goals, thinks that if the ultimate goal is to enter the NBA, why not learn how to play in the professional league earlier? What is popularity?
In the segregated park, playing was the only thing they could do, so the players quickly got together. Taught by the veterans, Green and other young people are humble and eager to learn.
"There are a lot of kids here who act like, 'Can this old guy shut up, or don't even bother to listen,' Brown said. But they are still students of the sport, and they are like sponges. ”
Green ranked second on the team (32 minutes) in potential and averaged 13.6 shots per game, the second most on the team, behind Cuminga. As an object of comparison, Cumminga averaged 9.3 two-pointers per game, shooting 46.3 percent; averaging 5.0 three-point shots per game, shooting 24.6 percent; and shooting 62.5 percent from the free throws. In every area of the pitch, Green's shots were more efficient than Cuminga's. Green has maintained good efficiency against these adult professional players, which is not simple for young people. It gives reason to believe that he has high scoring potential and that he can be the league's top scorer in the future.
They're dealing with professional players who are more experienced than they are, "these 18- and 19-year-olds, they're going to be fighting against adults who want to screw their heads off." But they can still confront them in the right way. Brown concluded.
Last summer, Green trained with NBA players, such as Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George, who mimicked some players to add to his style.
"I like him, I love his game. I think he's a mix of almost all the good defenders in the league... He exploded from the flat ground like a trampoline on the floor. George said of Jaylen Green.
Green wanted people to compare him to Kobe. He wanted to compare himself to the great players. Since high school students like Kobe Bryant and Maddy can eventually become legendary defenders, why can't I? Even Brian Shaw has to admit that Green is indeed a training freak, think about who Shaw won 5 championship rings with with the Los Angeles Lakers? Having seen the "infamous" teammate, the gold content of this "training maniac" can be imagined.
"I would never compare anyone else to Kobe Bryant, there's only one Kobe. The only comparison I would make is the one he wants to be great. Sometimes I have to protect him from hurting himself, because he just wants to keep doing it and keep practicing. I have to explain to him that sometimes you have to get your body back to recovery and recuperation because you can't keep high-intensity exercise every day. Shaw said.
"But his answer is always, 'But coach, I just want to be the one who's great.'" So, as far as I can see so far, he has the same mentality (as Kobe Bryant). "His training and learning ability is very strong, in Shaw's eyes, Green has footsteps, jumps, speed, and more importantly, the willingness to learn."
So why should Green regret coming to the G-League to play? Despite the lack of attention over the past six months, he has made great strides in this experience, which has also helped him learn how to manage money, how to face the NBA's tight schedule, and how to grow independently during the eight-month park season.
In July 2021, as it rained outside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Green walked into the main venue with former teammate Cumminga. Green wears a glittering grey custom suit from Bowman, while Cumminga next to him wears an orange suit. According to the annual practice, the little green house invitee needs to take a photo before the draft.
The atmosphere was tense and exciting, just like before Game 5 of the Finals. A few minutes later, Green picked up his phone and started taking a selfie, and you could see the excitement on his face. When the entire rookie group was called on stage to take the final big photo, Green was the only one who secretly gestured more than a yeah.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic on draft night, Green said, "I'm a kind of silly and extroverted person who likes to communicate with people and I like to connect with people. I care about the people around me. I am such a person, a loving person. At the same time, I can always feel the love of others for me. ”
His humility, his optimism is in his bones. When Green represented the school to Kentucky for the annual Chick-fil-A Classic, they lost 59-63 to La Lumiere High School in Indiana in the semifinals. Green scored 45 points and scored 29 in the second half. After the game, Green told coach Volka that he wanted to eat something. But then there was an awards ceremony, Green was nominated for the best team, he had to be there, so the time was very tight, but Green kept complaining. Foka had to immediately drive Green and his teammates to Wendy's hamburger, the nearest to the arena.
That afternoon, there were about 30 cars in front of the restaurant, and they were stuck in the middle of the line. Green's stepfather began to get impatient 15 minutes from the arena. He called to urge them to come back. Foka replied, "I'm stuck in the Delaisu Restaurant, what are you asking me to do?" ”
Green sat in the car, listening to music and entertaining himself. Luckily they came back in time. Just as Green's name was being read, Green walked into the arena with fries in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other.
Green's personality, lively, straightforward, positive, very attractive, but also very funny. He has the kind of personality that you want to work with.
Jaylen Green has signed a sneaker contract as a big hit rookie, which is a contract he dreamed of. In terms of choosing equipment, Green, unlike many American players who like Nike, has loved Adidas clothing since he was a child. He transferred to Prolifik Preparatory School in his final year of high school and also wore the jersey provided by Adidas and participated in the Adidas Challenge.
He said his favorite player growing up was Derrick Rose. During his trip to USC, Green met Ross, and his eyes lit up when he spoke of rose.
Maybe he wanted to be a champion so much, and there was a reason why Rose.
"My goal is to get Rookie of the Year." In an interview at the draft, Green spoke about his goal for the rookie season. Now that the list is a foregone conclusion, I want to be the best performer of this year.